Bitcoin tops $60,000 as investors bet on ETF approval
That appeared to be a tacit admission that the SEC would soon give the regulatory green light to “a fund that holds Bitcoin futures contracts.”
Numerous investing firms, including ProShares, Invesco, VanEck and Galaxy Digital, have filed with the SEC for bitcoin futures ETFs.
Bitcoin ETFs are a way for individual investors that don’t want to go through the trouble of mining – i.e. using fancy hardware to solve complex mathematical problems that generate a new bitcoin to access other ways to buy and sell the cryptocurrency.
And bItcoin bulls have been waiting for the SEC to approve one, with the hopes that having an ETF will make it even easier for average investors to buy crypto.
“It seems clear that regulators will approve some version of a crypto ETF soon,” said Chris Kline, chief operating officer and co-founder of Bitcoin IRA., adding that “the SEC is starting to understand how these assets are stored, secured, and reconciled so that it makes sense in traditional finance.”
Bitcoin’s roller coaster ride
Bitcoin prices, which rose to nearly $62,000 Friday, are now only about 5% below their all-time high of just under $65,000 that they hit earlier this year.
“With recent confirmation from both the Fed’s Powell and SEC’s Gensler that although regulations are coming, there is no China style clampdown envisioned, this will provide comfort to the broader institutional market that [bitcoin] is here to stay,” said Seamus Donoghue, vice president of strategic alliances at METACO, a digital asset infrastructure provider.
Prices have also continued to rally lately despite more criticism from bitcoin bear Jamie Dimon.